It’s also probably why Davis was the perfect guy to step up his game in Saturday’s 67-55 championship game victory over Limestone when so much went so wrong for the Crusaders.

Before the game had even started at Limestone’s Timken Center, senior point guard Terrone Sheffey was declared out after suffering a hamstring injury in Thursday’s 105-87 upset semifinal win at top-seeded Barton.

Then, early in Saturday’s game, Tyshawn Good and Darryl Durham were sidelined with foul trouble.

What it meant is that for all or much of Saturday’s championship game, the Abbey would be without its top two scorers and its top rebounder.

But Davis stepped up to fill both voids – along with the help of other teammates – as the Crusaders won their first Conference Carolinas championship game since 2003.

“We came into the game knowing Terrone would be out,” said Davis, who finished with team-highs of 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists in Saturday’s win. “We all knew we had to step it up.”

Davis said defensive rebounding was a pre-game point of emphasis. And Davis finished with a team-high seven defensive rebounds as he and his Crusaders’ teammates limited Limestone to eight offensive rebounds.

“They were the leading rebounding team in the league,” Davis said of the Saints, who entered Saturday averaging 41.2 rebounds overall and 12.1 on offense. “But we boarded and finished plays.”

All-tournament team

Three of the seven Conference Carolinas all-tournament selections came from the Abbey, including tournament most valuable player Tyshawn Good.

Despite scoring a season-low nine points in Saturday’s championship game, Good averaged 22.7 points per game in the Abbey’s three tournament wins, highlighted by 38 points in Thursday’s win at Barton. Good also remains the top scorer in all of men’s college basketball this season at 27.0 points per game.

Darryl Durham and Terrone Sheffey joined Good on the all-tournament team that also included Limestone’s P.J. Foster and Joe Raga, Barton’s Gerald Boston and Erskine’s Corey Sorrell.

CC tourney history

Through 1981 and the first 38 league tournaments, Conference Carolinas had never had a team celebrate a league title by winning on an opponent’s floor.

But six times in the 33 tournaments since then, including twice each by Belmont Abbey and Barton, league teams have pulled off the feat.

Certainly, much of that has to do with the league holding its tournament most frequently at neutral sites – Elkin (1948-49), Statesville (1950-52), Winston-Salem (1953, 1968-71), Lexington (1954-67, 1973-78) and Fort Mill, S.C. (1998-2002).

And Belmont Abbey’s win at Limestone on Saturday marks the second straight season a road team has won the league championship game after the home team had won four straight championships from 2008-11.

Belmont Abbey’s previous road title win came in 2003 at Pfeiffer.

Sheffey update

Terrone Sheffey went through Friday’s walk-through practice for Saturday’s Conference Carolinas title game and a final decision on his status wasn’t made until ealier Saturday.

But Sheffey hopes to be ready for this week’s NCAA Division II Southeast Regional tournament.

“He told me he couldn’t go,” said Justin Kuhlman, who filled in with 10 points and no turnovers in 37 minutes on Saturday. “We were really disappointed for Terrone, but we wanted to win for him and the seniors and hope he comes back.”

Abbey history

The Abbey will be making its sixth appearance in the NCAA Division II tournament and first since 2003.

Those five previous appearances came in clusters, as the Crusaders went three straight seasons from 1959-61, then back-to-back years in 2002-03.

The Abbey’s best finish came in 1961 when they were runner-up to Austin Peay. They finished thire in 1959, 1960 and 2002 and were fifth in 2003.

Saturday’s tournament title gives the Crusaders their eighth conference tournament championship; The Abbey won five North Carolina Junior College Conference titles (1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1949) and now have five Conference Carolinas titles (2002, 2003, 2013).